What Science Brings
by Alias Erotavlas
Summary: Paige Adlam is a theoretical physicist on the brink of a major discovery. But what and who she discovers begs the questions: Where the heck is she and why was she dumped here?
1. Prologue

What Science Brings

Prologue

* * *

Charlie Evans scribbled in his notebook fervently. The notes were almost complete and if he could finish them tonight, he'd be able to finish the experiment by July. If not, his funding would be delayed or even cut off. Charlie paused for a moment, but quickly resumed his work. It had to be finished tonight; it had to.

In his writing frenzy, Charlie's elbow knocked into a beaker of blue-green liquid. Charlie's eyes widened as the beaker fell. He dropped his pencil and reached for the oh-so-important vial only to let it slip past his fingertips. Charlie waited for the smash accompanied by the sound of all of his funding being yanked out from under him.

But it never came.

Charlie cracked open one of his eyes only to see blue-green. He pulled his head back to see that it was the beaker being held before his face by a hand. With a sigh of relief, he reached out and took the vital mixture from the person. After checking to see if his experiment was damaged(which it wasn't) he turned to look at the person who had saved his career.

It was a woman with a mop of dark hair that perpetually covered her eyes. She was wearing a long white lab coat over jeans and green t-shirt. The only visible parts of her face were her mouth and nose.

"You should really be more careful, Charlie," the woman reprimanded.

He sighed and turned back to his notes while saying, "You've told me about a thousand times, Paige."

Paige gave him a crooked smile, "You've almost lost your funding about a thousand times."

He gave her an irritated look out of the corner of his eye, but continued scribbling in his notebook. Paige walked up behind him and looked over his shoulder. His hand stopped scribbling for a moment, but quickly resumed.

"So, you're almost ready to test this, huh?" Paige asked while reaching over and grabbing the beaker she'd saved earlier. She swirled the liquid inside around a few times before setting it back down.

"Yeah," Charlie put his pencil in his notebook and closed it with a snap, "I heard from Akens that your team was ready to go already."

Paige nodded excitedly, bangs bobbing up and down with the rapid movement, "Uh-huh, and I get to be the first to use it." She leaned against Charlie's desk, grinning proudly.

Charlie shot her a nervous glance, "Isn't that a bit dangerous? I mean, I trust your team's handiwork, but you know the old saying- anything bad that can happen, will."

Her lips pressed into a hard line, "I know, but how else are we supposed to test it? It would dismantle anything without a pulse and using animals is too dangerous." At Charlie's confused look, Paige elaborated, "They're too unpredictable to use. We can't specify an assignment to them and even if we did, there's no guarantee that they'd stay on track. With humans, it's...more reliable."

Charlie shook his head, "How do you know you won't be dismembered yourself?"

Paige looked away from him, fingernails digging into the aluminum of Charlie's desk, "I don't; not 100% anyway. There's still a 45% chance that I'll be dismembered." Charlie's eyes went wide, but Paige cut him off before he could say anything. "I know it's a bit high, but it's come down quite a bit since we first began. It used to be at 89% percent. I'd call that a pretty good reduction." The remark seemed like it was supposed to sound cheery, but it didn't come out that way.

Charlie looked at his friend worriedly, "Do you even know where you'll end up if you don't get dismembered?"

Paige chuckled humorlessly, "No guarantee of that, either. I could end up anywhere from 15th century Germany to 4950 A.D. New York." She scratched her nose and looked over at Charlie, "Heck, maybe I'll even have the chance to meet you as a little kid or an old man. Or myself for that matter..." She looked up at the ceiling, seemingly in deep thought. It was quite clear to Charlie that she had spent a lot of time thinking about the subject.

"Well then," Charlie began, causing Paige's head to snap back to attention, "I guess I should wish you good luck, then." He offered his calloused hand to her. Paige smiled and grabbed his hand. Charlie was about to give it a firm shake when Paige pulled him into a one-armed hug.

"Just in case," she muttered before letting go.

She made to leave the office, but turned around in the doorway. She gave him, what he assumed to be, a reassuring smile. And, not for the first time in their friendship, he wished he could see her eyes.

* * *

**A/N: I know, I know. A new story is a bad idea, but when I get an idea I write it down. Besides, this one is different than a lot of what I've come up with. That and this is my favorite genre and I haven't seen anthing like this so I thought 'why not'. I just hope I can stick to it.**

**Cordially yours,**

**Alias E.**


	2. Farewells

What Science Brings

Chapter 1

Farewells

* * *

The Theoretical Science wing was a cacophony of scattered papers and shouting scientists. It was only two hours until departure and everyone was making last minute calculations, adjustments, and farewells.

Evelyn Manson was probably the most emotional of the project crew. She had probably hugged Paige about a thousand times. Paige never protested, but by the tenth time she seemed pretty irritated, judging from the way she sighed and drummed her fingers against her pant leg.

"Evelyn," Paige sighed, holding the older woman an arms length from her, "I need to finish my work."

Evelyn sniffled slightly, "I know, b-but you, you-" she didn't finish the sentence before she burst into another set of tears. She didn't want her friend to go. It was too dangerous. It was she who determined the chance of dismemberment. It was her role as the team's physiologist to determine the effects their project would have on the human body. It scared her to know that one of the best friends she'd ever had could be taken apart in a nanosecond.

Paige smiled at Evelyn, "You worry too much. I'll be fine as long as I follow the instructions you gave me."

Evelyn bit her lip and looked over at her friend, "Are you sure?" At Paige's nod, she continued, "Could you...repeat it for me." Paige's mouth didn't move, leading Evelyn to believe she was getting annoyed. "Please? It'll make me feel better." Evelyn bounced on her heels nervously.

Paige sighed and ran a hand through her hastily-made ponytail, "Alright, alright." She sat on one of the six desks in the room, "When stepping into the main quantum chamber, be sure to wear the specially designed, radiation retardant, jumpsuit to prevent any radiation poisoning. While in the process of traveling be sure to keep your brain active. Think of anything- friends, family, work- as long as you're thinking, you'll make it. The waves produced by your brain signify that you are alive and therefore will be allowed through without dismemberment. Once on the other side, be wary of any possible diseases, injuries, or infections." She turned her head towards Evelyn for confirmation.

Evelyn sighed, "I know, I know. I worry too much, but you're my friend, Paige. I don't want you to end up getting hurt."

Paige turned towards her and pulled her into a final hug, "I'll be fine, you don't need to worry."

* * *

The slow escalation of noise in the lab was enough to deafen anyone. Suffice to say it was nearly impossible to work, which irked Raymond Sanchez to no end. He ran a hand through his dark hair and bent back over what he was working on.

The little LED display was beginning to give him a headache. He'd been running tuneups, updates, and system checks on the wrist unit since dawn. So far, he'd had to re-load a dozen programs, re-code two, fix the wireless connection at least three times, and create at least two more programs. To him, half the programs were hardly relevant to the project, but according to their illustrious project manager, Paige Adlam, everything she had the technology department create was relevant. He honestly thought she was overreacting, but they couldn't defy the project manager.

Someone stepped up behind him(for about the thousandth time that day), effectively blocking his light. Raymond growled in irritation and turned around, ready to yell at whoever was disrupting his work. All plans of yelling at the offender flew out the window, however, when he saw who it was.

Raymond's brow furrowed in confusion, "Fiala? I thought you were next door, working with the other historians."

Fiala Milana was their Czechoslovakian history expert and Raymond's fiance. In fact, he had been the one to recommend her. Many other historians on different subjects, countries, and events had been brought in so that, if Doctor Adlam were to end up in the past, they'd be able to guide her through that certain point in time without affecting any major events.

"Yes, well, Doctor Adlam asked me to check up on your progress with the wrist unit." She said, sounding every bit like a working stiff.

She was definitely one of their more formal workers. She was very no-nonsense and had given Raymond an earful about his lack of attention to his work a number of times. But she was a sweet woman when she stopped working and remembered what fun was- something that didn't happen very often.

Raymond smiled at her, "Yeah, almost. I've just got to run a system check on the language translator..." he punched a few buttons on the unit and a little red loading bar popped up. After a few minutes the bar had finished loading and Raymond and stood. "There, that should be good."

The two walked through the chaos of the lab to where Doctor Adlam stood, talking to the assistant project manager, David Mahoney.

"- able to track my location using the wrist unit." Doctor Adlam was saying.

David looked doubtful, "You sure? It seems a little... difficult to pull off."

Raymond feigned hurt, "David, I am shocked that you have such doubt in my technological genius." He held the wrist band aloft almost as if it were a trophy and not Doctor Adlam's lifeline while on her journey.

David sighed, "I don't doubt you Raymond. It's just-" Raymond didn't give him a chance to finish.

"You have no idea what technological genius this device is!" Raymond grinned proudly.

David gave a disgruntled sigh, Fiala rolled her eyes, and -as far as anyone could tell- Doctor Adlam's expression remained the same.

"Raymond, as much as I'd like to see your demonstration _again,_" David said, "There's only half an hour until Doctor Adlam's departure. Speaking of which," he turned to Doctor Adlam, "we should be getting to the Departure Chamber."

She nodded and motioned for Raymond to follow, "Sorry, Fiala, but only the direct members of the team are allowed in the Departure Chamber."

Fiala nodded in understanding and the three scientists left for the chamber.

* * *

David pulled his radiation suit and stepped up to the controls along with the five other scientists allowed behind the six inch thick steel separating them from the rest of the laboratory. He turned a few nobs, setting the radiation calibration and other key elements of the experiment.

Once finished, he turned his head towards where he had last seen Paige and Raymond. The latter was demonstrating the device to Paige, showing her any new adjustments he'd made to the device and/or any new programs he may have added in the last system update. Paige nodded several times, seemingly giving Raymond her rapt attention. At least, that's what he assumed.

David was abruptly pulled from his thoughts when Brooklyn Turnbull, the chief engineer for the building of the Departure Chamber and the Hyper-Sensitive Quantum Transporter(H.S.Q.T. For short), loudly announced that there was only twenty minutes left until departure.

David rubbed his forehead tiredly, "Must you shout? All of us can hear just fine."

The redhead glared at him, "If I don't say it loud enough, none of you pay attention, Doctor Mahoney." Then, she turned away from him, nimble fingers racing across the keyboard faster than David's eyes could trace.

Sighing, David turned back to his own control panel. He turned a few more nobs and flipped a few more switches before stepping away from the panel. He saw Brooklyn surveying his work out of the corner of her eye(not that she'd ever admit it). She nodded slightly to herself before returning her full attention to the computer screen before her.

Once Brooklyn was finished, she stepped away from the panel as well. Her eyes quickly scanned over the screen several times before she was satisfied with her work.

"Alright, she's all set," Brooklyn sighed, tension lacing her words.

Paige walked up to the two of them, hair the only thing visible through the small window in the headgear she was wearing.

"Well, this is it," she said, voice holding something the other two scientists couldn't quite place.

"I suppose it is," David said awkwardly.

Brooklyn rolled her eyes and pulled Paige into a hug. She grabbed David's arm and pulled him into the hug too. She called to the other three scientists in the room-Raymond, Evelyn, and Michael Ferris- to join in as well. The group stayed like that for a few moments before breaking apart.

Evelyn moved back to her station, stifling sobs. Raymond grinned at Paige reassuringly. Michael wished her a cheerful good luck. Brooklyn clapped Paige on the back, loudly telling her to "kick the spice-time continuum's ass". David shook her hand roughly, muttering an apology about the hug(much to the woman's amusement). And Paige wished them all a farewell, hoping that she'd be able to establish contact with them as soon as she "made it to the other side".

With the final farewells taken care of, the crew initiated the countdown. In the final moments before Paige's departure, they all couldn't help but hope for the best, whatever that may be.

* * *

**A/N: Yes! I managed to finish this today! I have to say, I'm really excited about this story. It deals with some of my favorite scientific theories of all time. Time travel. I believe it's an interesting spin on the Naruto Universe.**

**Oh, and just so you guys know, Michael will be expanded on later. I didn't forget about him, if that's what you're wondering. I plan to go back and forth between time periods, showing the point of view of the people on both sides. As for going in to Paige's point of view...I don't plan on doing it much. I prefer to show people's views of her and how she interacts with each of them. So many stories only follow the point of view of the main character and I didn't want it to be so...centered, I guess the word would be.**

**Anyway, enough of my babbling. I hope you all enjoyed the story and I encourage you all to give me your constructive criticism and positive reviews.**

**Oh, and thanks to Yumi Kusakabe, G.P for responding to this story so quickly! Reading your reviews really helped me write this faster.**

**Thanks,**

**Alias E.**


End file.
